free will baking: cannoli tiramisu
ready to be loved or labelled a villain by Italians for this one
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We are back for some more ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩ free will baking ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩ !!
After the last installment, I got a lot of feedback, and have come to the conclusion, maybe we jumped a little too far into the deep end on riffing and adapting. So, we’re reeling things back a bit and starting with a light toe dip in the free will baking pool. Because baking freely doesn’t always mean overhauling a recipe, changing the fats, subbing milk for cheese etc etc. Sometimes, it’s just dunking lady fingers in to thai tea or matcha instead of coffee.
I’ve been working on my tiramisu recipe for a couple of months now, every so often making a batch with a few tweaks here and there. I mean, it’s a wonderful classic and doesn’t need to be man handled all the much. But, I made tiramisu for the first time in Jan (I know shocking!!) and usually what happens, is I become fully obsessed with a dessert making it dozens of times until it fits my perfect ideal of what I want in that dessert. So yeah, been making LOADS of tiramisu.
Originally, when I set out on ep 2 of ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆°✩ free will baking ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆°✩ I wanted to show riffing this bad boy into a banana tiramisu. I felt like it was the perfect place to re-start on this series. We aren’t overhauling the tiramisu recipe, changing it’s chemistry. Nope, just dunking lady fingers into banana milk and folding banana slices into the cream and still giving everything a healthy dusting of cocoa powder. But, the thing with baking and creativity, is you gotta be open to change. The way your ideas shift and change, because sometimes you set out to make a banana tiramisu and end up with something cannoli inspired. All because, you laid eyes on ricotta when reaching for mascarpone and I mean, it’s all cheese right? I also had cannoli two days in a row prior to shopping for this so… safe to say she was on my mind. Cannolis: filled with a creamy cheese filling. Tiramisu: also filled with a creamy cheese filling. Nothing could go wrong here.
So,
I dunk the lady fingers into a mix of coffee and sweet marsala wine. Which, maybe isn’t a prevalent flavor in the cannoli but, if the soak needs a boozy element, might as well use the one you’d find in cannoli shell dough.
I subbed half of the mascarpone with strained ricotta, we still need the mascarpone because it’s still tiramisu after all.
To the filling I added orange and lemon zests, a lil hit of royal cinnamon and loads of mini chocolate chips
Finish the whole thing off with a layer of crushed pistachios.
bada bing bada boom! Cannoli tiramisu!
So, some notes before we get into the recipe!
I use raw eggs for my tiramisu filling. I know not every jives with the idea of consuming raw egg products. If you’re pregnant, elderly or immunocompromised- I’d advise against eating raw egg products. That being said, you can cook the yolks with sugar over a double boiler to make a zabaglione, this will give the filling a more dense texture. Instead of the whipped egg whites you can sub those out for fresh whipped heavy cream.
In the same vein, if you’re not comfy with the raw egg component, apply the same changes that I listed above to your own fave egg free tiramisu recipe. Remember, that’s the point of free will baking after all. You don’t need this recipe to riff on, you just need a recipe to riff on.
This recipe makes a lofty batch of tiramisu, a 9x13” pan worth of tiramisu. You can totally half the recipe if ya want. It just so happened though that this pan perfectly fit 2, 7 ounce packs of lady fingers in it. That’s usually my struggle, hot dog bun conundrum. Where most every other dish/vessel I have that could be used for tiramisu needs like 1 1/4 packs and I’ve got left over rogue lady fingers. Like I said, half the recipe if ya want to feed a small gathering and not a small army!
I used lady fingers that have a granulated sugar coating on the tops of them, some brands don’t have this. Because of this I don’t add any extra sweeteners to the coffee marsala mix. If ya wanna sweeten that up a bit because you have nakey lady fingers, feel free to add a little sugar! Once again, personal preference here.
Remember, it’s all highly optional, don’t wanna use ricotta because you’re a mascarpone purist? Use all mascarpone! Don’t think mini choco chips belong in cannoli filling? Then don’t add ‘em to your tiramisu filling! Ya got free will and I’m not gonna show up in your kitchen to yell at you if you wanna do your own thing!